The best April Fools prank was the one where I filled in for Slaves for a week and then ended up getting ditched in Texas with no luggage and then had to pretend to go home to recover so they wouldn't get put on blast. Hahahahahahah oh wait, that was real.

Texting is a two way street. Numbers have to be exchanged, correspondence has to be reciprocated. Any online private conversations that have now become public are not as one sided as they've appeared. As a touring singer song writer who had access to just about anything, I was happy. I was content. I never once sought out the attention from fans, but was happy to know that I had an online forum of adoring women who thought I was great. Sexual or otherwise, I only had text interactions with willing participants.

Lord Huron's new album, Strange Trails is streaming on iTunes Radio's First Play. The band is also hosting a Reddit AMA on April 7th at 10AM PT. You can pre-order the new album, which comes out on April 7th, here.

Just a friendly reminder to make sure you check us out on other social networks. We are on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Last.fm, and Rdio. The AP.net staff can also be found elsewhere online -- this page has the goods. Show us some love.

Dan Ozzi takes a look at the biggest "sell out" albums in punk and re-reviews:

The move was never received well, and always seen as an affront to those who had launched the bands out of the basements in the first place. Whether the band's major label debut was a commercial success or a flop, a critical darling or panned piece of trash, many fans stuck a middle finger to the whole thing, as if to say, "We support you, but not enough for you to be able to quit your job at Whole Foods!"

After one week off we return with a new episode of the AbsolutePunk Podcast. This week's episode looks at a whole lot of the most recent albums to come out: Death Cab for Cutie, Hit the Lights, All Time Low, The Maine, and Kendrick Lamar are all featured prominently. Which ones do we like? Which ones do we not like? Did Kendrick release the most "important" album of 2015 before the year's even a quarter over? We yawn our way through a little about Tom DeLonge wanting to write 15 novels and then we discuss Jay Z's Tidal and the future of music streaming online. What would make us switch? Will this service be anything or is it all just a waiting game until Apple releases whatever comes...

The trailer for the Amy Winehouse documentary, AMY, can now be seen in the replies. It's brought to you from the team behind the award-winning documentary Senna and features interviews with Mos Def, her producer Salaam Remi and ex-husband Blake Fielder. There's also unseen footage, interviews and previously unheard tracks all brought to life.

Update: Huge thank you to the band and everyone for hanging out. The chat has now ended.

We'd like to welcome our longtime friends Cartel to the website today to chat. The band recently released a bunch of acoustic versions from Chroma and will be heading out on tour very soon. Hit the replies to chat with the guys about their upcoming tour, plans for the future, and things like that. They'll have blue names and sassy personalities.

Creep Records just announced that Mikey Erg (The Ergs!, Star F*cking Hipsters) will be performing at 9:00 AM at their store in Philadelphia on Record Store Day, April 18th, along with many other artists throughout the day.

Anthony Raneri of Bayside has a new reggae / ska project called The Young Ones. You can stream a new song, a cover of Cliff Richard and The Shadows' 1960 single "The Young Ones," in the replies. The single is being pressed on a flexi disc by Rare Breed Recording Co. as part of a seven-piece subscription, which is available here.

"I think it's important to go and to be working with different organizations there and to raise money. I'm gonna do press on the issue. That to me is how you really make a difference. I never understood the idea of canceling a show when you don't like the politics of a specific state. The politics don't speak for everyone in that particular state; I would argue they probably don't speak for most of the people in that state, but that's who their leader is and [Gov. Mike] Pence is obviously a piece of shit and I'm excited to go and say that on stage."

One of our very own, Paul Beaumont (username Paulb-182) has started a new band titled Wood and Nails and they've just posted a new track titled "All We'll Ever Need" on their Official Bandcamp page alongside the pre-existing "The Night Before" and a couple of acoustic tracks. If you're a fan of The Menzingers or earlier The Gaslight Anthem, give it a whirl.

Update: The chat is now over! We'd like to thank The Maine for taking the time to talk with everyone. Be sure to go pick up American Candy and catch them on tour with Real Friends and Knuckle Puck when they swing through!

The Maine will be chatting in this thread. Stop by to talk to them about their new album, American Candy, their upcoming tour, or anything else!

Ben Thompson, writing for Stratechery, about Tidal and the future of music.

This is why, by the way, I’m generally quite unsympathetic to artists belly-aching about how unfair their labels are. Is it unfair that all of the artists who don’t break through are not compelled to repay the labels the money that was invested in them? No one begrudges venture capitalists for profiting when a startup IPOs, because that return pays for all the other startups in the portfolio that failed.